Shift arrangements of this type are known, particularly for urban and long-distance buses, where the shift rod array has to extend over relatively great distances and where due to obstacles, such as axles, luggage compartments, and gas tanks, the shift rod array must be deviated in vertical as well as horizontal directions.
The steadily increasing utilization of the space below the floor of such buses, particularly long-distance buses, causes an ever increasing number of changes of direction in the shift rod array and thus ever more bearing locations. These bearings are preferably plain bearings for the axial displacement and rotary motion, e.g. with plastic bushings.
With increasing numbers of changes of direction and, therewith, in the number of bearing locations, friction also increases and stiffness decreases. Such remote shift arrangements require therefore high shifting forces and result in shift arrangements which are hard to operate and have poor indexing of the selected speeds.